The Turning (it's finally here)

My final show is up! We (me and my cohort of friends and family who have donated hundreds of man hours in my behalf---thank you, thank YOU, THANK YOU!) got it all done in a day. A very long day.

After Mikey and I put the tools away, picked up the garbage and packed up our boxes, I realized how my entire body was throbbing. I'm pretty sure I hobbled all the way to the car.

But it's up! (and will stay up through the 14th of this month).

And you are all invited to the opening reception tomorrow night, December 3 at 6.

And to whet your appetite, here's a sneak peak at what we did yesterday . . .

Our magic car with all 25 paintings, 3000+ hexagons, tools, odds and ends and everything else all inside. It's sort of like the Barney Bag.

Even if Santa isn't real, his elves are. Here they are in action, stringing together the 20th generation back on my dad's side. (Side note: Someone asked me if the paper was a bracket of some sort. Retrospectively, I wish I would have answered, "yeah, it's all the possible outcomes for March Madness. I'm sort of a super-freak.")

You've got to see it in real life. And smell it. And look closely at the names. And listen more closely to hear them.

Hope to see you tomorrow night!

things keep moving

Today I have spent 5 hours writing inscribing the names of my ancestors on wax hexagons. The hexagons that I spent all last week making. The hexagons that half my family came over to help punch and tie (bless you, bless you, bless you...)

And now I can't feel my middle finger.

I noticed that I was writing slower and slower. I punched out a generation and a half before lunch, and I've barely done one since. I remembered this whole blood sugar when you're pregnant thing. And drank some orange juice. It's Mikey's special. (Thanks dude). And I'm feeling much better.

I planned on doing my hair today but it has been in and out of several buns, pony tails, and braids all day. Maybe not doing my hair isn't saving me time in the long run. Isn't that how it is with everything though? You think you save yourself by shirking something and end up having to deal with it later (in a bigger, more tangley way).

After this show is hung I'm declaring a personal holiday for the following week. Do you think I can get my professors to go along with it?

i'm taxing my whole family

Cassandra Barney came a gave a lecture in my Business Practices for Artists Class. She said several things that impressed me. She was articulate and smart. Savvy, even. But one thing she said stuck out in a major way. She said, "My schedule affects everyone around me. If I’m over booked, it taxes my whole family.”

 I almost laughed out loud because Tuesday night half of my family was at my side helping me cut out hexagons, punch holes, and tie them together. We tied over 500 hexagons. This installation project is much bigger than I had anticipated (and I'm blaming in on Typewriter Grandma's sister who is busy-as-a-bee--pun intended--finding more progenitors) and I think I've brought on a case of The Worries among my family members. (Sorry guys).

I'm confident I can finish (or, we can finish...) and I'm hoping it will be as powerful as it is time-intensive.

Fingers crossed.

in progress

i've got over a dozen paintings in progress. it feels good and it's nice to think that i'm making progress, but at the same time, mikey's plea to "just finish a piece!" is ringing increasingly loud in my ear.

here are photos of some of the "in progress" paintings.

i was critiqued in class today and it went really well. they felt (as do i) that so far my installation is more successful on several layers, but i'm working on getting my paintings up to speed. they need some tlc.

after i went straight to my studio and a kid from my class came in a little while later. he told me he "appreciated hearing the dialogue on my work" because before he thought i was "painting for the marriott"

i asked him, "the marriott?"

"yeah, like hotel art"

and then he meandered off and i wanted to throw my paint brush at his head.

still inspired

Mmmm

Some more yummy images...

image credit

Monogold by Yves Klein

currently inspired by...

the installations by Chris Burden:

Reason for the Neutron Bomb, 1979

All the Submarines, 1987

the sculpture of Jackie Winsor:

Bound Grid, 1971-72

the scultpure of Ibram Lassaw:

Kwannon, 1952

the sculpture and installation work of Eva Hesse:

Sans II, 1968

the sculpture and installation work of Louise Nevelson:

Sky Cathedral's Presence I, 1959-62

Untitled, 1961

the collages and paintings of Robert Rauschenberg:

Mother of God, ca. 1950